I once encountered a discussion of sorts as to how the people in that forum are disgusted by the 'jologs paradigm' and as the discussion took its I course I was also asked to give my take on it and this is what I came up with...
The idea of jologs doesn't disturb me much but it does alarm me. Since the safest deffinition of what jologs is what is prevalent in the twentysomething crowd. What alarms me is the fact most of the people who fall under the jologs crowd are so pretentious in the sense that they always try so hard to dress like, act or be like those people whom they emulate.
It sickens me everytime I see kids who try to rap like Salbakuta without taking seriously the sexual undertones of the lyrics. Or how kids try to dress up in like Ghetto kids, but the fact is that they're not African-Americans and they don't live in ghettos. Do you get where I'm getting at here?
We could also site poser-skaters as jologs in the sense that they copy the get-up of Pro-Skateboarders. They call themselves 'Thrashers' well in fact it is actually a title of a magazine. They wear skateshoes because Fred Durst wears them, not because skate-shoes have a good grip on the grip-tape of skateboards while those non-skateboarder kids who wear skateshoes don't even know what a griptape is. Another thing is that they make Steve Caballero, Chad Muska, Willy Santos and Tony Hawk look like they learned skateboarding in a day by wearing their shoes to look cool. Another thing that I can't get with those people is that they always try to wear skate-shirts what with the skate-shirts anyway? Non-sponsored skateboarders don't wear them so why should non-skateboarders wear them?
Another good example are the so-called 'rockers' I mean if they're really into rock music they should see it as a form of rebellion to what is accepted by the affluent society. So why is it all of a sudden turned into some exclusive cult of sorts. I mean you can't be called a rocker unless you listen to NU107, or read PULP, or put laminated pictures of your favorite band (preferably Slipknot) in your JANSPORT backpack, or wear TOP-40 t-shirts that has a picture of CHE GUEVARRA, or is it mandatory for rockers to regard METALLICA as the best band in the world, Or to form bands that fall under the ALTERNATIVE POP ROCK genre, or is it very cool if your band practices at ALBERTO's, or your band buys your tabs at BENJIE'S or at FADE TO BLACK. I mean rock and roll is supposed to be absolute disregard to what normal people call cliche. So why are you people making your own rules anyway.
I know I sound a little bit self-righteous but the fact is: IS THAT I'M ALREADY VERY PISSED OFF BY THE WHOLE IDEA OF CATEGORIZING AND DRAWING THE LINE ON WHO'S JOLOGS OR NOT!
I know the reasoning I that prevailed in what I've written above is somewhat shallow, but the thing is that however much I try to remove angst in my arsenal of emotions towards such people I still can't help but ask myself 'why are they so concerned with how people would look at them as if they're begging for compliments and praises for their purchased poser-rebellion?' I mean if they're really so into the counter-cultural niche that they claim to be part of they ought to start reconsidering their motives for projecting their rebellion as something that is cool. I cannot be fooled by such I grew up with kids whom I remember to once slam-dance to Nirvana's Smell's Like Teen Spirit, but as to my surprise they're also now part of the crowd who are now waving their sissy glow sticks to the deafening backbeats of techno in those sweaty meat-truck smelling places they call discos, I know better when it comes to posers and I am sickened by the fact that they're in abundance nowadays.
On The Jologs Phenomenon
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
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